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GUIDE: Display control via Windows! Brightness, contrast, etc. (DDC/CI)

157K views 69 replies 37 participants last post by  Krzych04650 
#1 ·
Introduction:
Ever wanted to have laptop-like control over your desktop monitor from inside the OS? This might be the guide for you.

A lot of monitors out there today support a really neat feature called DDC/CI, but not many people have ever heard of it, let alone know what it's for.
DDC/CI stands for Display Data Channel Command Interface and basically allows monitor control via the graphics card.
This is not like the software methods in your GPU control panel that just darken/brighten the image. With this approach, you're actually communicating with your monitor.
Wikipedia has a few lines DDC/CI it, I'll just leave it at that.

Please note that this guide will only work on DDC/CI enabled monitors. Most monitors do support this, but not all of them.

How to use it:
The reason why you've probably never heard of DDC/CI, even though your monitor is fully compatible, seems to be that manufacturers* are simply too lazy to develop the software for it. Fortunately the Internet is at our disposal here, though there isn't a lot to choose from and most apps feel outdated, clunky or just too complicated.

ScreenBright is according to my experience the best alternative out there. It's free, less than 1MB in size, and it's what I'll be using for this guide.
Edit: Site has been taken down, so here's an alternative download source: [Softpedia] ScreenBright

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It's a really simple application that might not look like much, but let's not pass judgment just yet.

Taking full advantage of the features:
The graphical user interface is pretty straightforward. At a glance, it probably doesn't seem to be better than simply pressing the buttons on your monitor.

Hang on, here comes the good part; it supports command line arguments!
What that means, is that you can create custom one-click "profile" shortcuts that can be stuck to your taskbar or bound to a keyboard macro, etc!

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For those who don't know how to add custom toolbars to the taskbar, check this guide.

I'm one of those people that always lowers screen brightness to minimum during the night, or it hurts my eyes, and then sets it back to normal in the morning.
With DDC/CI control, I don't have to get out of bed to do this (I usually watch a series or something on my PC before I fall asleep).

Command line arguments:
WARNING: You can turn your screen completely black if you use wrong command line arguments! (all colours to 0, etc.)
This can usually be fixed easily by doing a factory reset on your monitor, but still.

Start off by creating a shortcut to ScreenBright.exe, then right-click the shortcut and go to Properties. Find the field labeled Target; this is where you want to add your desired command(s), after the closing citation mark.


There are two types of commands for ScreenBright: -get < setting > and -set < setting > < value >

With < setting > being one of the following:
  • brightness
  • contrast
  • red
  • green
  • blue
  • screen
And < value > ranging from 0-100, except for the screen argument, where it ranges from 1 to your # of active displays.

Note that, for the -set command, you can combine several settings in a single argument.

Example of a command line that sets brightness to minimum and contrast to 75%:

Code:

Code:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\ScreenBright\ScreenBright.exe" -set brightness 0 contrast 75
Multiple monitors are supported:

Code:

Code:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\ScreenBright\ScreenBright.exe" -set screen 1 brightness 45 screen 2 brightness 60
The -get argument simply shows the current value and interval of the setting.
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Once you have added your commands to the Target field, press OK and you're done. I recommend renaming the shortcut to something descriptive and placing it somewhere handy.

Note: ScreenBright must be closed before running it with command line arguments.

Last words:
Thanks for looking, I hope that someone finds this as useful as I do!
This is my first guide, feel free to comment and ask questions.
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*It seems that Samsung actually have their own DDC/CI app, MagicTune. Thanks to dragonxwas for the tip.
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#8 ·
Thanks, glad you like it.
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MagicTune looks nice, it seems Samsung actually bothered to develop a DDC/CI application for their monitors then. I'll add that as a note in the OP.
 
#9 ·
I've tried both screen bright and Display Tuner and neither of them work for me. I get an error saying that there's no compatible monitor recognized. I have two displays....a BenQ W6000 HD projector and a smaller Hitachi CRT monitor that is very old(bought in 1999). Could it be that both of my displays are not Benq W6000 DDC/CI compatible?

If so, is there an alternative software program out there that allows me to setup and adjust select different brightness and contrast profiles via nVidia control panel? Please let me know.
 
#10 ·
Sorry to hear that it's not working for you. I'm not surprised that the old CRT isn't compatible, but it could have worked with the projector. I looked at the manual for the W6000, unfortunately I couldn't find anything on DDC/CI in there so I think you're out of luck on that front. Didn't the projector come with a remote?

As for creating brightness/contrast profiles for nVidia Control Panel, I don't think I've heard of any software that does that.
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by HothBase View Post

Sorry to hear that it's not working for you. I'm not surprised that the old CRT isn't compatible, but it could have worked with the projector. I looked at the manual for the W6000, unfortunately I couldn't find anything on DDC/CI in there so I think you're out of luck on that front. Didn't the projector come with a remote?
As for creating brightness/contrast profiles for nVidia Control Panel, I don't think I've heard of any software that does that.
Thanks for the reply HothBase. I have GOOD NEWS! I've discovered a program called RivaTuner. It allows you to adjust brightness and contrast for any monitor and does a bunch of other nifty little things too. Can even create profiles and launch them via Hotkeys. No DDC/CI compatibility required! Just plain works. Glad I found RivaTuner it rocks!
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#12 ·
Hmm, I'm pretty sure that RivaTuner only does "soft-control" though, as in it changes the image sent from the GPU instead of actually controlling the monitor. Regardless, I'm glad you're happy with it.
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#14 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryqiem View Post

Is there any way to get ScreenBright to do relative brightness adjustments? (Like +5).
Not that I know of. You could try contacting the developer. With any luck, he might implement it.
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#16 ·
I just set my monitor to sRGB.. don't know why you wouldn't really. It follows a perfect gama curve and looks the cleanest and best in games imo, at least on my monitor, (Asus VG278H) 120HZ 3D capable LED). It has all those splendid modes but I find those are obnoxious and they make things look very unnatural.
 
#20 ·
Thanks. Will test this later!
 
#21 ·
HothBase
Thank you!
It's very comfortable to use shortcuts. I made two of them - movies/photos/games (-set brightness 70 contrast 50), and for a normal use like text etc. (-set brightness 0 contrast 0) and put those things to the Windows task bar with different icons
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BTW, this utility can't set contrast lower than 20? I can do it only via command line
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Before this I had a monitor from NEC and used NaviSet, but this thing (with shortcuts) is much more handy!
 
#23 ·
+rep
I get extremely bad light sensitivity, when I get bad migraines, and planning on getting a new monitor as well, my current Samsung(using magictune with it) is getting on in years (T240) so now I know that DDC/CI will hopefully work with current gen monitors, because new one wont be a Samsung for the one I want from them are glossy panels but;
thanks
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!
heres what I did with mine,
 
#24 ·
Hi, I've been a ScreenBright user for a while now and always wished it had presets, so I don't have to use the slider to carefully get the value I need. I use ScreenBright dozens of times a day (switching between web browsing, doing visual art, watching movies, writing novels, playing games, etc), and having to always use the slider to get the exact value I want becomes very tiresome. I emailed the developer begging for a preset save/toggle feature, but I was told to just use command line batch file, which I have no idea what it means or how to do it. I searched the web but I'm don't know much about DOS so it didn't really help (I'm not a techie at all when it comes to DOS/programming and have little to no knowledge in that area. I'm better at the hardware level stuff like building computers).

@HothBase - You mentioned that you created quick single-click profile settings that act like presets, but I have no idea how to create them. I tried to follow your instructions, but all they did was allow me to set the settings via command line, and I have no idea how to create/save the profiles I want (and the Save button on ScreenBright doesn't seem to do anything). Can you please tell this noob how to do it (the steps)? Thanks so much!

EDIT: Okay, the developer has given me the steps to create .bat presets, and if anyone else is like me and don't know how to do it, here are the steps he gave me. Below is his instruction:

The save button shall save the settings in the screen.
As far as I remember at least one of my screens forgets the setting after a power cycle if I don't click save.
That's not what you need.

1. launch Notepad
2. enter the following text:
ScreenBright -set brightness 40 contrast 50 save
3. save it as for example "preset1.bat" in the directory of screenbright
4. maybe create a shortcut of this file on the desktop or in the start menu
5. exit ScreenBright
6. double-click the bat file or launch the shortcut you've just created
now the screen shall be set to brightness 40 and contrast 50 and both saved in the screen.

You can do the same completely without batch files as it's described on the website you've linked to me, but as far as I see the description misses some points.
 
#25 ·
I haven't been very active lately, sorry about that.
smile.gif

Quote:
Originally Posted by jeri View Post

so how it is different from the nvidia colorpanel?
NVIDIA Control Panel manages software settings. This is for managing hardware settings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lunatique View Post

You mentioned that you created quick single-click profile settings that act like presets, but I have no idea how to create them. I tried to follow your instructions, but all they did was allow me to set the settings via command line, and I have no idea how to create/save the profiles I want (and the Save button on ScreenBright doesn't seem to do anything). Can you please tell this noob how to do it (the steps)? Thanks so much!
I've updated the guide now with the changes I sent to you via PM earlier.
 
#26 ·
Hello, everyone!
I was just searching on how to assign my monitor profiles to the macro-keys on my keyboard.
I have Dell U2311h, SteelSeries Apex [RAW] and Windows 7 x64. ScreenBright brightness slider works just fine (I think, I`ll be able to make a profile and then switch by pressing my macros). Thanks HothBase! I also want that I can also switch by my monitor presets (such as "Game", "Standart", "Custom" etc,), because I launch game-shooters quite oftenly during the day, and it`s hard to always switch between "Game" (they need matrix overdrive) and a "Custom" preset.
 
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